The first hole I ever made in a wall was not even my fault. My landlord asked me to hang a calendar before Diwali, and the nail went in at the wrong angle and left a small crack around it. I panicked a little, because I did not want to lose my deposit over one […]

Last month I finally ran out of space for my books. They were stacked on the floor, balanced on my study table, and honestly starting to take over my room. Buying a ready-made bookshelf felt like an easy fix, but most of the ones I liked in Jaipur were either too expensive or too big […]

I still remember the exact evening I decided to paint kitchen cabinets on my own for the first time. I had just moved into my first rented flat, and the kitchen shutters were covered in old grease, chipped paint and years of neglect. I did not have a big budget for a full kitchen makeover, […]

My kitchen sink used to be the one corner of my home I quietly avoided looking at. Between cooking three vegetarian meals a day, washing vegetables, rinsing lentils, and stacking dishes after dinner, the sink took a beating every single day. One evening, after noticing a dull white film around the tap and a faint […]

My skin used to look tired by 10 pm every single night. Screen time, Jaipur heat, and skipping my routine after long work days had left my face looking flat and dull, no matter how much concealer I used the next morning. The turning point came when I stopped chasing "fairness creams" and actually started […]

Two years ago, my hairdresser looked at my hair and asked a simple question: was I using a proper sulphate free shampoo in India, or just something that smelled nice? I did not have a good answer. My scalp was dry, my ends felt rough, and I was losing more hair in the shower than […]

Last monsoon, I stood in front of my bathroom mirror at 8 AM, watching my face turn shiny within twenty minutes of applying sunscreen. I was already running late for work, my skin felt like it was frying under a thick layer of cream, and I remember thinking, there has to be a better way […]

Last summer I came back from a weekend trip looking like a completely different person. My arms were a shade darker than my face, my feet had a strange sandal-shaped tan line, and I remember standing in front of the mirror wondering how to remove tan without damaging my skin further. That one trip sent […]

I still remember the evening before my first big presentation at work, sitting on my bed with a blank sheet of paper and absolutely no idea why I had picked up a pencil instead of scrolling through my phone. My hands were shaking a little, my mind was running through every possible way things could […]

I still remember sitting in my room on a random Sunday at sixteen, phone in hand, scrolling for hours and somehow feeling more bored at the end of it than when I started. That feeling stayed with me even after I turned twenty two, because I kept meeting younger cousins and readers on Mindful Hive […]